A week is a long time and football and the Gold Coast Titans proved the old adage in their second pre-season trial tonight.
The Titans downed the Dolphins 26-18 in a strong turnaround from the performance a week ago.
The Titans will now go into a first round bye with confidence in their new look spine and on the back of the return of a host of stars, headlined by captain Tino Fa’asuamaleaui.
Here are the key three talking points from tonight’s match.
Six days is a long time in rugby league…
The Titans by their own admission were disappointed in last week’s performance against the Broncos, but quickly rewrote the wrongs of Toowoomba with plenty of energy, effort and aggression in Redcliffe.
That included keeping the Dolphins scoreless in the first 20 minutes, whilst finding the line twice within that same period, thanks to some classy plays from the new-look spine.
Only conceding three tries in the entire 80 minutes, Des Hasler would be impressed with the improvement of his side’s defensive efforts which saw them with an overall tackle efficiency of 90 percent – led by the efforts in the middle by Sam Verrills (41), Klese Haas (38) and Beau Fermor (31).
They also won the forward pack battle with 554 more metres than the home side, led by starters Moeaki Fotuaika (175) and Jaimin Jolliffe (128) who got through big minutes with the Round 1 bye in hand; alongside the strong return from captain Tino who contributed well in his return.
Tino’s return
The returning Titans captain played 24 minutes in his return to top flight rugby league. After rupturing his ACL nearly 12 months ago Fa’asuamaleaui would have just been looking to get some minutes in his legs, but showed more than that.
A nice offload to Keano Kini showed what that combination could bring in season 2025, before his coach, Des Hasler, decided he had seen enough and gave him the remainder of the night off.
Hitting hard from the first tackle and his trademark strong carries of the ball were on show. By the end of his stint he had seven runs for 80 metres, 13 tackles, three offloads and two tackle breaks. Plenty for Titans fans to look forward to improvement on in the coming weeks.
New look halves
The Gold Coast Titans debuted a new-look halves combination with Jayden Campbell at halfback and AJ Brimson at five-eighth for the club’s second trial.
Brimson had partnered veteran playmaker Kieran Foran in the first trial with Campbell on Indigenous All Stars duty, but the club was able to roll out a near full strength side tonight, including the new combination.
The emergence of the talented Keano Kini at fullback in meant that coach Des Hasler needed to find a spot for the talented Campbell and Brimson and the six and seven jersey fitted nicely tonight.
Some of their highlights…
In the 17th minute the Dolphins line rushed Campbell on the last tackle and he dodged a defender before grubbering through for AJ Brimson to swoop on the loose ball and beat Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow at fullback for his first try of the night.
In the 27th minute Campbell put in a deft touch for backrower Klese Haas who knocked the bouncing ball in front of an otherwise open tryline.
In the 46th minute Campbell found Klese Haas on a nice line before he offloaded to Brimson to break into the backfield. While Brimson didn’t score, the Titans did on the next play through Beau Fermor with the momentum created.
The 57th minute saw Beau Fermor poke his nose through before finding Jayden Campbell who broke into the backfield and combined with Brimson for his second try of the night.
An arm injury to Kieran Foran will likely mean the dynamic duo will continue their roles into the early rounds of the season.
